Is being elite the same as living an easy life? Two distinct ways of experiencing subjective socioeconomic status.

Socioeconomic status (SES) predicts a large number of thoughts, feelings, and behaviors; here, we build on these findings to try to paint a comprehensive picture of what people who occupy different SES ranks are like. Existing findings attribute a mixed set of psychological patterns to people who consider themselves near the top of the socioeconomic hierarchy; these individuals are variously portrayed as selfish yet generous, entitled yet happy, and narcissistic yet tolerant. Building on previous efforts to characterize distinct dimensions of SES, we wondered whether there might be distinct but overlapping ways of experiencing one's status in the socioeconomic hierarchy, each linked to a different psychological profile, and each potentially corresponding to a different theoretical approach to the study of SES. We employed a bottom-up, participant-driven approach (total